But a man may tell a good deal and never use his tongue at
all. The eyes, for instance, or even the cheeks, can talk, and are full
as likely not to tell lies.
It might have been two months, perhaps, after the other half was let,
that I heard Mrs. Lane say one day,--
"Joey, there's an alteration in David."
"For better or wuss?" calmly inquired that maiden.
I did not hear the reply, but I had seen the alteration. In fact, I had
noticed it from the beginning, and had come to the conclusion that the
mischief was done the first day,--that his heart somehow got a twist in
the screwing-up of the bed-cord,--that it received every one of the
blows which those white arms were aiming at the insensible wood.
It was a case which had vastly interested me. I mean that it was quite
in my line, detecting a man's secret in his countenance. I was glad of
the practice.
Mary Ellen knew, too; and yet she had received no help from the
profession. Only an innocent little country-girl! 'Twas her natural
penetration. What a pity women can't be lawyers, they have so much to
start with!
Poor David! He wasn't sensible of what had befallen him.
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